I think the title should have been "How mammals reconquered the world" as mammals descend directly from cynodonts and their relatives which were the dominant li

I think the title should have been "How mammals reconquered the world" as mammals descend directly from cynodonts and their relatives which were the dominant life form before the permian-triassic disaster. Cynodonts are synapsids, one of the two major branches of the amniote vertebrates. Birds descend from dinosaurs, which descend from sauropsids - the other major amniote branch. So the dinosaurs stole it from us because: disaster, then we stole it back because: another disaster. I adore Wikipedia! Of course if the doom-mongers are to be believed and our climate crisis becomes a runaway hothouse which devastates life across land and oceans in major disaster fashion then the birds are well-placed to take over again. I've never trusted them crows!